PARENTS, staff and children from a Birmingham nursery took part in a demonstration to protest against its imminent closure.

The Birmingham Mail told last week how Busy Bees Nursery, based at the Great Barr campus of Sutton Coldfield College, had just been given six months to find a new home or close its doors for the last time.

Yesterday’s protest was held in response to the college’s plans to move to a new site in Perry Barr.

The 90-place nursery, which had previously been given a rolling notice period of two years, has been operating from the former North Birmingham College site in Aldridge Road since 1993.

But Sutton Coldfield College, which now owns the building, is looking to relocate to a new £42?million development on a former dairy site in Perry Barr.

At the demonstration, parents waved signs and placards in a bid to keep the nursery open, beyond September at least.

Busy Bees manager Karen Harris said: “Even if we were to start building a new nursery now it would not be ready in time.

“We always assumed we had enough time to find new premises to go to. It is even harder in the current climate to find new premises and build a new nursery,” she added.

Karen said staff and parents were “devastated” to learn of the closure threat.

She added that some parents had already left to find alternative childcare elsewhere, while two members of staff had found other jobs in view of the impending closure.

“The uncertainty has always been there because of the threat of the college being knocked down and a new campus built nearby, but they have now said we have until September 30.”

A spokesman for Sutton Coldfield College said the new development had been on the cards for a number of years and planning consent had previously been granted for housing on the Great Barr site.

He said the college had alternative nursery provision at its other campuses.